Photo: Sacrilege Motors
When you set out to modify a vehicle and you need to make sure it makes a splash you can't really cut corners. Especially if the car in need of modifications is a Porsche, and one of the rarest ones in the world at that.
It was last week when we brought you news of a Tesla Model S-powered Porsche 911 getting ready to be unveiled during the Monterey Car Week. That didn't happen yet, but something new was added now on top of what we already knew about the car.
The vehicle in question is a 911 of the America variety. It was first made by the German company back in 1992 as a U.S.-only version of the Carrera 2. The car is part of a very rare breed, as only 250 of these things were ever made.
Owned by an unnamed customer, the 911 ended up in the hands of a three-year-old shop dedicated to creating "the most captivating EV-conversion Porsche 911s available." That’s right, these guys take Porsches in, extract their internal combustion engines, and slap electric drivetrains in there. In the process, they also restore the cars to customer specifications.
Post-conversion this particular 911 America is called Blackbird, in honor of the SR-71 Blackbird. It looks the same as any other Porsche of its kinship, but underneath it hides Tesla hardware to get it going.
The electric motor of the car has been tuned to deliver 500 hp and 500 Nm of torque. That's a lot, considering how with the original gear on, the 3.6-liter flat-six engine, it was only capable of releasing 250 into the wild.
We knew all of the above ever since Sacrilege first shared the news of the Blackbird with us. We also knew that the custom has been designed in such a way as to retain the car's original driving dynamics and that it has the same weight distribution it had when leaving the factory doors.
And now we get a little more insight into how that was accomplished. As per Sacrilege, every single car it will ever make will rely on modified Penske Racing shocks, tied to Euro-spec Porsche 911 964 RS upper shock mounts.
The exact specifications of the hardware are not disclosed, but we are informed dynamic testing and tuning of the setup is taking place at the Lime Rock Park track in Lakeville, Connecticut. And I only told you this because it's likely we’ll get further updates on the project from there.
As for how much it cost to make the Blackbird, that's a bit of info better left between the car's owner and Sacrilege. At least that's what the involved parties seem to think, as they didn't disclose that bit of information.
The vehicle in question is a 911 of the America variety. It was first made by the German company back in 1992 as a U.S.-only version of the Carrera 2. The car is part of a very rare breed, as only 250 of these things were ever made.
Owned by an unnamed customer, the 911 ended up in the hands of a three-year-old shop dedicated to creating "the most captivating EV-conversion Porsche 911s available." That’s right, these guys take Porsches in, extract their internal combustion engines, and slap electric drivetrains in there. In the process, they also restore the cars to customer specifications.
Post-conversion this particular 911 America is called Blackbird, in honor of the SR-71 Blackbird. It looks the same as any other Porsche of its kinship, but underneath it hides Tesla hardware to get it going.
The electric motor of the car has been tuned to deliver 500 hp and 500 Nm of torque. That's a lot, considering how with the original gear on, the 3.6-liter flat-six engine, it was only capable of releasing 250 into the wild.
We knew all of the above ever since Sacrilege first shared the news of the Blackbird with us. We also knew that the custom has been designed in such a way as to retain the car's original driving dynamics and that it has the same weight distribution it had when leaving the factory doors.
And now we get a little more insight into how that was accomplished. As per Sacrilege, every single car it will ever make will rely on modified Penske Racing shocks, tied to Euro-spec Porsche 911 964 RS upper shock mounts.
The exact specifications of the hardware are not disclosed, but we are informed dynamic testing and tuning of the setup is taking place at the Lime Rock Park track in Lakeville, Connecticut. And I only told you this because it's likely we’ll get further updates on the project from there.
As for how much it cost to make the Blackbird, that's a bit of info better left between the car's owner and Sacrilege. At least that's what the involved parties seem to think, as they didn't disclose that bit of information.
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